this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] randamumaki@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Trams (aka Streetcars) are still better longterm solutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNTg9EX7MLw

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 75 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I really don't like how, whenever there is an article on something that works, people feel the need to post whatever solution they prefer and say it's better.

This project had 2 goals - reduce pollution and raise revenue for transit upgrades. It succeeded. Better than a tram would have on it's own, I might add.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good, if you want to share that video so much, just post it, instead of linking it with that downer of a comment.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I really don’t like how, whenever there is an article on something that works, people feel the need to post whatever solution they prefer and say it’s better.

Agreed. What a silly reply.

This is a wildly successful change in a city that really, really needs solutions to several problems related to cars. The peanut gallery needs to shut their pie hole and absorb the article.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, this is new york city. They famously have a major subway. I hear it could use expanded, but trams are going to have to explain why it's better to have a third public transit option rather than just busses and subway expansion

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You don't have to wait 30 minutes underground without signal in a train car with a BO problem, for one

[–] ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

However trams are a hell of a lot slower moving than a subway because they still have to deal with surface intersections etc. When there's a good subway system it makes transit really fast, much faster than trams

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

NY's subways are not a good system though. They're desperately in need of improvement, are perpetually broken/down, and make travel between boroughs nearly impossible. That said, I also have no doubts that street cars in NYC would be constantly stuck behind double parked cars, Amazon delivery trucks, busses, and spontaneous influencer photoshoots.

I spent two decades of my life in NY before moving to a different city that has street cars. The street cars here are a breath of fresh air compared to NYC's shitty transit system.

[–] lengau@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago

Indeed! One of the things this could even do is provide funding for trams if the transit authority funds that to be the correct use of the money.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)
  1. I think the congestion pricing zone is a step towards making the core of manhattan a car-free zone.
  2. Jason (NJB) already says in that video that some trams are often a precursor for larger-capacity metros. Ridership volumes across the city are beyond what trams can effectively provide. Much of Manhattan already is crisscrossed with metros galore, but need funding to keep it in a good state-of-repair and maximize service capacity and uptime.
[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He also says that trams serve a different role than metros, and treating trams as immature subways is a bad thing. Trams can have incredibly high throughput if run frequently.

Everything needs funding, but as roads are incredibly expensive to maintain. Replacing cars with transit is less expensive for the city in the longterm.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would trams have higher throughput than subways?

[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They have significantly higher throughput than a car lane of the same size. That's the comparison that really matters.

Subways and trams fill different niches. That's kind of a core point of this. Trams compete with cars for space at street level, while subways do not.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What? Subways definitely compete with cars.

Surface roads should all just be converted to pedestrian paths or bicycle-only roads

I see no need for trams

[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Please read full sentences before responding.

Also watch the not just bikes video we were discussing. It explains all of this pretty well.

[–] al_Kaholic@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 1 week ago

Options are good. Your vision lacks wisdom.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. The goal of congestion pricing is to get money flowing back into transit and at the same time allow transit to become more efficient (ie. stuck less behind cars)

With the increase in revenue this allows upgrades of existing infrastructure and transit routes, and with left over money for future expansion.

Ultimately like you said, maybe leading to potentially above ground streetcars at somepoint.

[–] hazeydreams@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We need both tbh. Congestion pricing directly leads to increased funding for the transit authority to build out new infrastructure like trams